Grosse, Guido: Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (Project Lead)
Romanovsky, Vladimir: University of Alaska, Fairbanks (Co-Investigator)
Walter Anthony, Katey: University of Alaska, Fairbanks (Co-Investigator)
Walter Anthony, Katey: University of Alaska, Fairbanks (Co-Investigator)
Jones, Benjamin (Ben): Institute of Northern Engineering - University of Alaska (Participant)
Project Funding:
2008 - 2013
NRA: 2007 NASA: Carbon Cycle Science
Funded by NASA
Abstract:
Thermokarst depressions and thermokarst lakes (TKLs) dominate large areas of the arctic land surface and may expand as permafrost continues to warm and thaw, releasing large quantities of methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere. We propose to define the relationship of TKLs to global climate change by developing remote sensing methods to quantify thermokarst and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from TKLs in regions (>1 million km2) of organic-rich, icy permafrost and ice-poor permafrost in Siberia and Alaska. We will use fine and broad scale remote sensing and field validation to determine the role of thermokarst as both a source (GHG release) and sink (peat accumulation) for carbon (C), thereby improving understanding of the behavior of a major C pool (icy permafrost) previously poorly considered in global C cycle sciences. Specifically, we will use remote-sensing based land cover classification and change detection to derive information about thermokarst distribution, initiation, and related changes in land surface properties to improve C-cycle and ecosystem models for Northern Hemisphere permafrost regions. We will test new satellite-based techniques: SAR data will be evaluated for upscaling field-measurements of CH4 bubbling from lakes to regional estimates of lake CH4 emissions through the establishment of a Pan-Arctic Lake-Ice Methane Monitoring Network (PALIMMN). By integration of our remotely sensed spatial data, information derived from multi-temporal satellite data (50 years), radiocarbon dated TKL sediment records (up to ~15,000 years old), and available and predicted climatic data, we will inform the sophisticated 2-D and 3-D numerical permafrost models of our collaborators for prediction of spatial and temporal thermokarst dynamics and related GHG emissions in scenarios for up to 200 years into the future as permafrost warms and thaws under global warming.
Publications:
Arp, C. D., Jones, B. M., Urban, F. E., Grosse, G. 2011. Hydrogeomorphic processes of thermokarst lakes with grounded-ice and floating-ice regimes on the Arctic coastal plain, Alaska. Hydrological Processes. 25(15), 2422-2438. DOI: 10.1002/hyp.8019
Arp, C. D., Whitman, M. S., Jones, B. M., Kemnitz, R., Grosse, G., Urban, F. E. 2018. Drainage Network Structure and Hydrologic Behavior of Three Lake-Rich Watersheds on the Arctic Coastal Plain, Alaska. Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research. 44(4), 385-398. DOI: 10.1657/1938-4246-44.4.385
Brosius, L. S., Walter Anthony, K. M., Grosse, G., Chanton, J. P., Farquharson, L. M., Overduin, P. P., Meyer, H. 2012. Using the deuterium isotope composition of permafrost meltwater to constrain thermokarst lake contributions to atmospheric CH4during the last deglaciation. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences. 117(G1). DOI: 10.1029/2011JG001810
Chanton, J.P. and K.M. Walter. Siberian Permafrost Decomposition, Arctic Lakes and Carbon. Development and Transition. Published by the United Nations Development Programme and the London School of Economics and Political Science June, 2008 issue. www.developmentandtransition.net
Edwards M, Walter K, Grosse G, Plug L, Slater L, Valdes P (2009): Arctic thermokarst lakes and the carbon cycle. PAGES News, 17(1): 16-18. http://www.pages-igbp.org/download/docs/newsletter/2009-1/special_section/science_highlights/Edwards_2009-1(16-18).pdf
Engram, M., Anthony, K. W., Meyer, F. J., Grosse, G. 2014. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) backscatter response from methane ebullition bubbles trapped by thermokarst lake ice. Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing. 38(6), 667-682. DOI: 10.5589/m12-054
Grosse, G., Harden, J., Turetsky, M., McGuire, A. D., Camill, P., Tarnocai, C., Frolking, S., Schuur, E. A. G., Jorgenson, T., Marchenko, S., Romanovsky, V., Wickland, K. P., French, N., Waldrop, M., Bourgeau-Chavez, L., Striegl, R. G. 2011. Vulnerability of high-latitude soil organic carbon in North America to disturbance. Journal of Geophysical Research. 116. DOI: 10.1029/2010JG001507
Grosse, G., Jones, B. M. 2011. Spatial distribution of pingos in northern Asia. The Cryosphere. 5(1), 13-33. DOI: 10.5194/tc-5-13-2011
Grosse G, Romanovsky V, Walter K, Morgenstern A, Lantuit H, Zimov S (2008): Distribution of Thermokarst Lakes and Ponds at Three Yedoma Sites in Siberia. In: 'Ninth International Conference on Permafrost', Kane DL & Hinkel KM (eds), Institute of Northern Engineering, University of Alaska Fairbanks, pp. 551-556.
Grosse, G., Romanovsky, V., Jorgenson, T., Anthony, K. W., Brown, J., Overduin, P. P. 2011. Vulnerability and Feedbacks of Permafrost to Climate Change. Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union. 92(9), 73-74. DOI: 10.1029/2011EO090001
Grosse, G., Romanovsky, V., Nelson, F. E., Brown, J., Lewkowicz, A. G. 2010. Why Permafrost Is Thawing, Not Melting. Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union. 91(9), 87. DOI: 10.1029/2010EO090003
Grosse, G., Jones, B., Arp, C. 2013. 8.21 Thermokarst Lakes, Drainage, and Drained Basins in: Treatise on Geomorphology. Elsevier, 325-353. DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-12-374739-6.00216-5
Gusmeroli, A., Grosse, G. 2012. Ground penetrating radar detection of subsnow slush on ice-covered lakes in interior Alaska. The Cryosphere. 6(6), 1435-1443. DOI: 10.5194/tc-6-1435-2012
Harden, J. W., Koven, C. D., Ping, C., Hugelius, G., David McGuire, A., Camill, P., Jorgenson, T., Kuhry, P., Michaelson, G. J., O'Donnell, J. A., Schuur, E. A. G., Tarnocai, C., Johnson, K., Grosse, G. 2012. Field information links permafrost carbon to physical vulnerabilities of thawing. Geophysical Research Letters. 39(15). DOI: 10.1029/2012GL051958
Jones, B. M., Grosse, G., Arp, C. D., Jones, M. C., Walter Anthony, K. M., Romanovsky, V. E. 2011. Modern thermokarst lake dynamics in the continuous permafrost zone, northern Seward Peninsula, Alaska. Journal of Geophysical Research. 116. DOI: 10.1029/2011jg001666
Jones, B. M., Grosse, G., Hinkel, K. M., Arp, C. D., Walker, S., Beck, R. A., Galloway, J. P. 2012. Assessment of pingo distribution and morphometry using an IfSAR derived digital surface model, western Arctic Coastal Plain, Northern Alaska. Geomorphology. 138(1), 1-14. DOI: 10.1016/j.geomorph.2011.08.007
Jones, M. C., Grosse, G., Jones, B. M., Walter Anthony, K. 2012. Peat accumulation in drained thermokarst lake basins in continuous, ice-rich permafrost, northern Seward Peninsula, Alaska. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences. 117(G2). DOI: 10.1029/2011JG001766
Jones, B. M., Stoker, J. M., Gibbs, A. E., Grosse, G., Romanovsky, V. E., Douglas, T. A., Kinsman, N. E. M., Richmond, B. M. 2013. Quantifying landscape change in an arctic coastal lowland using repeat airborne LiDAR. Environmental Research Letters. 8(4), 045025. DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/8/4/045025
Kasischke, E. S., Amiro, B. D., Barger, N. N., French, N. H. F., Goetz, S. J., Grosse, G., Harmon, M. E., Hicke, J. A., Liu, S., Masek, J. G. 2013. Impacts of disturbance on the terrestrial carbon budget of North America. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences. 118(1), 303-316. DOI: 10.1002/jgrg.20027
Kessler, M. A., Plug, L. J., Walter Anthony, K. M. 2012. Simulating the decadal- to millennial-scale dynamics of morphology and sequestered carbon mobilization of two thermokarst lakes in NW Alaska. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences. 117(G2). DOI: 10.1029/2011JG001796
Marchenko, S., V. Romanovsky, and G. Tipenko, Numerical Modeling of Spatial Permafrost Dynamics in Alaska, In Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Permafrost, June 29-July 3, Fairbanks, Alaska, 2008, Vol. 2, pp. 1125-1130, 2008.
Melillo, J. F.S., R. Corell, K.M. Walter, Chapin, III, D. McGuire, Emerging Challenges. Methane from the Arctic: Global warming wildcard. United Nations Environmental Program, An overview of our changing environment, UNEP Year Book 2008, Editor Paul Harrison, Division of Early Warning and Assessment (DEWA), Nairobi, Kenya.
Morgenstern, A., Grosse, G., Gunther, F., Fedorova, I., Schirrmeister, L. 2011. Spatial analyses of thermokarst lakes and basins in Yedoma landscapes of the Lena Delta. The Cryosphere. 5(4), 849-867. DOI: 10.5194/tc-5-849-2011
Parsekian, A. D., Jones, B. M., Jones, M., Grosse, G., Walter Anthony, K. M., Slater, L. 2011. Expansion rate and geometry of floating vegetation mats on the margins of thermokarst lakes, northern Seward Peninsula, Alaska, USA. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms. 36(14), 1889-1897. DOI: 10.1002/esp.2210
Parsekian, A. D., Grosse, G., Walbrecker, J. O., Muller-Petke, M., Keating, K., Liu, L., Jones, B. M., Knight, R. 2013. Detecting unfrozen sediments below thermokarst lakes with surface nuclear magnetic resonance. Geophysical Research Letters. 40(3), 535-540. DOI: 10.1002/grl.50137
Regmi, P., Grosse, G., Jones, M., Jones, B., Anthony, K. 2012. Characterizing Post-Drainage Succession in Thermokarst Lake Basins on the Seward Peninsula, Alaska with TerraSAR-X Backscatter and Landsat-based NDVI Data. Remote Sensing. 4(12), 3741-3765. DOI: 10.3390/rs4123741
Schirrmeister, L., Grosse, G., Wetterich, S., Overduin, P. P., Strauss, J., Schuur, E. A. G., Hubberten, H. 2011. Fossil organic matter characteristics in permafrost deposits of the northeast Siberian Arctic. Journal of Geophysical Research. 116. DOI: 10.1029/2011JG001647
Schirrmeister, L., Kunitsky, V., Grosse, G., Wetterich, S., Meyer, H., Schwamborn, G., Babiy, O., Derevyagin, A., Siegert, C. 2011. Sedimentary characteristics and origin of the Late Pleistocene Ice Complex on north-east Siberian Arctic coastal lowlands and islands - A review. Quaternary International. 241(1-2), 3-25. DOI: 10.1016/j.quaint.2010.04.004
Schuur, E. A. G., Abbott, B. 2011. High risk of permafrost thaw. Nature. 480(7375), 32-33. DOI: 10.1038/480032a
Strauss, J., Schirrmeister, L., Grosse, G., Wetterich, S., Ulrich, M., Herzschuh, U., Hubberten, H. 2013. The deep permafrost carbon pool of the Yedoma region in Siberia and Alaska. Geophysical Research Letters. 40(23), 6165-6170. DOI: 10.1002/2013GL058088
Walter Anthony, K. M., Anthony, P., Grosse, G., Chanton, J. 2012. Geologic methane seeps along boundaries of Arctic permafrost thaw and melting glaciers. Nature Geoscience. 5(6), 419-426. DOI: 10.1038/ngeo1480
Walter, K. M., Chanton, J. P., Chapin, F. S., Schuur, E. A. G., Zimov, S. A. 2008. Methane production and bubble emissions from arctic lakes: Isotopic implications for source pathways and ages. Journal of Geophysical Research. 113. DOI: 10.1029/2007JG000569
Wetterich, S., Grosse, G., Schirrmeister, L., Andreev, A. A., Bobrov, A. A., Kienast, F., Bigelow, N. H., Edwards, M. E. 2012. Late Quaternary environmental and landscape dynamics revealed by a pingo sequence on the northern Seward Peninsula, Alaska. Quaternary Science Reviews. 39, 26-44. DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2012.01.027
More details may be found in the following project profile(s):
